High-ranking officials have expressed their concerns about the behavior of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Buckingham Palace during the corona pandemic. They did this in the hope that Queen Elizabeth II would address Johnson about it in their one-on-one conversations, the BBC reported on Monday.
That revelation is made in the second episode of the BBC documentary series Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos, which chronicles unrest in Westminster and Whitehall – the center of government in London – over four years. The television series covers the period between 2016 and the departure of Liz Truss as Prime Minister in 2022, based on interviews with those involved.
The documentary shows, among other things, that in May 2020 there were great tensions between then Prime Minister Johnson and his advisors and the civil service. The Prime Minister also came under fire several times during the pandemic for ‘partygate’, the scandal surrounding parties held by his employees while the country was in lockdown due to the corona pandemic.
‘Totally insane’
The BBC writes that there was more than normal communication between Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. A source also said the former prime minister ‘needed to be reminded of the constitution’. Another source described the atmosphere in Downing Street during that period as “completely grim and completely insane” and said relations were “simply toxic” and that ties between Johnson’s team and the civil service had “been severed”.
Johnson had caused a stir earlier in 2019 after sidelining parliament in the run-up to Brexit. The Supreme Court later ruled that this was illegal.
Extreme
Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara refuses to discuss the calls to Buckingham Palace in the documentary. ‘There were certainly times after the Prime Minister’s recovery (he contracted a corona infection and was admitted to hospital) when the perception among the political team at 10 Downing Street about the shortcomings of the system, the civil service and the various institutions, and the the way they worded it was extreme. They were destroying everything, shutting everything down and starting over. We were systematically in trouble,” MacNamara said.
Responding to the claims, Johnson’s team insists that the actions of 10 Downing Street (the British Prime Minister’s official residence) were “always within the constitution” and that no member of the royal family had raised “such concerns” with Johnson .
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, according to the BBC.
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